Midnight Snacking: The Right Food can Help you Sleep

Is it really okay to eat before going to bed? Old wives tales aside, recent indications are that having a snack before bedtime may assist you in getting a good night’s sleep – provided it is the right kind of snack. Baxton Property Management in Hobart pursues the options that are being explored as healthy bedtime eating, in the hopes it might help clients and their tenants have a good night’s rest.

Unfortunately for those with an addiction to late-night coffee, or a sweet tooth that craves a sugar fix while you are turning down the sheets, it’s not that simple. It’s not just any snack that’s recommended. It all comes down to what the snack contains and how it affects the bodily processes by stimulating some or calming others.

It’s What’s in the Foods that Counts

The foods that appear on the recommended list are there because they contain sleep-inducing ingredients, not energizing ones. So, gong, and out goes the coffee and the sweet treat and in come a band of ZZZZ superheroes.

These superheroes in the sleep-inducing arena appear to be magnesium, potassium, and the calming hormones serotonin, melatonin for their relaxing effect. Joining these is protein to stabilize blood sugar levels so you stay asleep longer, calcium for stress reduction and the stabilization of nerve fibres, and tryptophan because the brain uses it to produce melatonin with the assistance of calcium.

Let the Superheroes Work for You

Sweet potatoes provide potassium, magnesium and calcium which combined make a pretty good sleep team. Use slices of baked sweet potato in place of toast.

Banana smoothies: The banana gives you the magnesium and potassium, and if there’s some plain Greek yoghurt in it you can add in the benefits of calcium and tryptophan. You could also try using some banana on top of a late-night bowl of oatmeal. Yes, breakfast food. But oatmeal contains the whole armada of sleep-inducers – the calcium, magnesium, potassium and a couple of newbies to our list of heroes, silicon and phosphorous. Just don’t add sugar if you try the breakfast at bedtime approach.

Cheese and crackers: Like yoghurt, cheese contains calcium and tryptophan, and there’s another sleep-inducer, tyrosine, if it’s a hard cheese, and the crackers provide a few carbs. This is a good choice if you eat dinner really early, and your sleeping difficulties could be caused by hunger. Just don’t keep this snack for midnight and go straight to bed. You might end up with heartburn, or worse still, acid reflux.

Almonds contain both magnesium for sleep and muscle relation and proteins for a stable blood sugar level while frozen, juiced or dried tart cherries, chickpeas and walnuts contain tryptophan so promote melatonin production in the body while walnuts add some of its own melatonin as a bonus.

Lettuce tea: Here’s something different. Simmer four large leaves in a cup of water for a quarter of an hour, add two sprigs of mint and sip it before bed. Lettuce holds an ace up its sleeve, it contains another newbie superhero, lactucarium, which has sedative properties. And of course, herbal teas like Chamomile and Green tea (de-caffeinated) can also help you relax into restful sleep.

Tuna and Salmon (like pistachio nuts) contain a lot of Vitamin B6 which aids the body in producing melatonin and serotonin.

Baxton Property Management hopes these few suggestions will put you well on your way towards improved sleeping patterns, and manage those pre-bedtime hunger pangs at the same time. Baxton provides information on a regular basis about both property management and tenancy issues, as well as about ideas and matters it feels might be of interest to rental property owners and their tenants. Browse through Baxton’s regular blogs by visiting their website.

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The information contained in this article is based on the authors opinion only and is of a general nature which is not indicative of future results or events and does not consider your personal situation or particular needs. Professional advice should always be sought relevant to your circumstances.